Will Vitali Get a Shot at a Unification bout Against Haye or Valuev before Retiring?

By Chris Williams: WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko has made it known that he wants to capture and unify the final heavyweight piece of the puzzle the World Boxing Association heavyweight title before he retires from the sport. Under ordinary circumstances, this would seem like a perfectly attainable goal, at least lining up a title bout against the current champion.

This would a bout that would make both him and the WBA champion a lot of money. Sadly, I doubt that Klitschko will ever get a shot at making this happen because David Haye will be challenging the 7-foot Nikolay Valuev on November 7th for the title, and most boxing experts are predicting that Haye will probably win this fight because of Valuev’s lack of speed and power, and because of his age.

In recent comments in which Haye mentioned the Klitschko brothers, he only brought up IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko and not Vitali. This leads me to suspect that Haye has no intention of fighting Vitali, possibly because he sees him as the tougher of the two brothers and seems to prefer Wladimir as an opponent instead.

Since both brothers would be bringing in the same amount of money for Haye, you would have to surmise that this would be a self preservation move by Haye in selecting the weaker-chinned Wladimir rather than the sturdier Vitali to fight.

This still could work out for Vitali if by chance that Haye were to knock Wladimir out. Vitali, whether he’s still fighting or not, could then move on and set up a revenge bout in which he avenges Wladimir’s loss. As you would guess, this is all speculation at this point because Haye hasn’t even fought Valuev yet.

For all we know, Valuev could come out the gates in the 1st round and KO Haye with the first clubbing punch that he throws in the fight. It’s not likely given Valuev’s recent history, but with the weak chin that Haye has, it’s within the realm of possibility. Haye is small for a heavyweight, weighing only 215. He might put on weight for the Valuev bout, but realistically, Haye will be no bigger than 230 for the fight.

He’ll still end up being outweighed by close to 100 pounds by Valuev. That’s a ton of weight for a shaky chinned former cruiserweight like Haye. But if Haye does come through with a win over Valuev, I think Vitali might well have to forget having any chance at a unification match with Haye.

If it’s going to happen, it will likely be left up to Vitali’s little brother Wladimir to be the one to try and unify the title. It would be great somehow if Haye were to knock Wladimir out so that Vitali could move in and try to recapture the titles by beating Haye.

Who knows? Haye might not be interested in fighting Vitali, despite the boxing public clamoring for the fight. Haye could turn his back on them and focus on fighting Wladimir in a rematch instead of risking everything against Vitali.